Mister Marcin

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Before leaving Poland, the author of the blog dealt with classical music, communication and adapting business coaching methods to teamwork processes. The intricate paths of artistic life led him far away from his native Toruń. It has rubbed off on exotic cultures that possesses minds and souls. Eventually it happened. You never know how long you will stay in Asia: time is just an idea there.

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Mister Marcin is a professional classical musician with literary passion. During his time in Warsaw (2003-2015), he graduated from music studies, was a musician and inspector of a symphony orchestra, played in classical and popular music ensembles. He took part in a thousand performances in over a dozen countries, in dozens of recordings, festivals and live broadcasts. He developed managerial and coaching skills during additional studies at the Warsaw School of Economics.

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The main activity of Mister Martin in Cambodia was managing the oldest international music school in the country, with several hundred students representing over forty nationalities and with teaching staff from from four continents and fourteen countries. Author incooperated  with other educational and cultural institutions,  worked with students from five to one hundred and five in their own and in other partner schools. He invited foreign artists to performances and conduct master workshops. After several years of work, the students of the Cambodian school of music for the first time managed to show a wider audience and bring the first ever laurels of international competitions.

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A few months after commencing his directorship, the author was appointed visiting professor at the Royal University of Fine Arts. From this position, he advised in the cultural and artistic education environment. Mister Marcin was an honorary jurorinternational art competitions in Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia, tutoring children from the royal family and grandchildren of the Prime Minister of Cambodia. He was a member of the Cambodia Piano Teachers Association, with which he co-organized piano competitions at the national level.

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In 2018, Mister Marcin  received a proposal to establish an international philanthropic organization in Indonesia with the support of, inter alia, the princesses of Cambodia and the founding group (UHNWI), of which he became the first Chairman Board of Trustees. Working closely with Rotary International in Indonesia, the author was invited to become a member of the most dynamic Rotary club in the country.

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The author of the blog is passionate about communication in everyday life and management. Managed with multicultural organizations bringing together people of various nationalities, cultures and religions.

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Violent monsoons, bright colors, strange smells, strange, ancient languages of the Mekong Valley, secret gestures and shocking contrasts have become an inspiration to deeply look into the incomprehensible but fascinating environment of Cambodia. In the chaos of mixed up opposites one can find a peculiar wisdom that we do not have, or perhaps we do not remember, in Europe.

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From the perspective of a Westerner, Cambodia has turned out to be a demanding school of patience, a capricious lover, a challenge; experience of powerful contradictions and dissonances that do not help to adapt and, to put it mildly, do not cheer you up. As a stranger, however, every day Mister Marcin saw the life, smile and will of people from the Third World, among whom the memory of the recent genocide pulsates vividly under the skin. The chaos of Cambodia sounds with the sounds of intricate harmony that not every ear will seduce, but helps some people find themselves and their own path.

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Accustomed in Europe to efficient, organized work with highly educated colleagues, to open actions, to clearly express intentions, Mister Marcin turned out not to be suitable for the new environment. Like many foreigners, he tried to explain to himself why it was different than it seemed logical. On the other hand, how to live and let live when things are completely different than in Western culture.

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The land of the Khmer changed the author's life and still refers to him. It became not so much a story scene as a catalyst, the environment in which the results of literary work started several decades earlier were released . PhD with patience it is a cycle of fact and, in the future, also of literary fiction. In the Cambodian version, it is an image seen through the eyes of a man who almost accidentally visited Cambodia for a year, and the latter kept him for much longer. A few years later, living in one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, where the earth shakes, volcanoes spit lava and Komodo dragons live, the author returns many times a year from the tropical archipelagos of the Indian Ocean to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

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In every country you can meet similar people who in a foreign world cling to each other with more magnetism, although they pass each other indifferently in their own culture and on their land. The author of these stories made friends with them, sat down, drank a glass or two, recalling "how it is in old Europe ..." But he lived every day and - constantly taking notes - worked among the Khmer who showed him their world.

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The author of this blog was nicknamed whenever he appeared in his new surroundings. Mister Marcin stuck to him in Cambodia thanks to Miss Ewa, a Polish woman living in Phnom Penh. Except for one Khmer professor who graduated in Poland and speaks fluent Polish, the Khmers themselves cannot pronounce the name Marcin. Only a few pronounced them reasonably correctly after a long training session, and each of them differently. For this reason, there is no such Khmer nickname that would replace the exclamation Mister Marcin ...

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... Who will forever remain "incomplete", "less", because he left a piece of his heart and life, of the loving work of his hands in the Khmer Kingdom for all time.

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This blog will tell you what he got in return.

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